Also damaged at Flat Nasty was some of my Exhaust Pipe and hangers. I took it into the exhaust shop and we raised it up on the lift. I also noticed that the factory crimps the pipe pretty good to get it over the frame, closing the 2.5" pipe down to 1". So instead of repairing what was there, I asked them to ditch the resonator and replace the pipe from the magnaflow muffler back with 3" pipe. I noticed a definite improvement in performance. The thread this is discussed in along with what others have done can be found
here. I am thinking it's a little louder than I would like, like a muscle car. I probably next year will add a turbo muffler or glass pak in series to cut the noise down a bit without hurting performance.
Sarah (Romer's other Daughter) turned 16, so I bought her a 1996 LX450 (no lockers) from Lexusben who had just done the headgasket, fuel injectors and front axle. We of course put the OME lift, ARB and sliders on.
The next dilema is Sarah's truck had bald stock Michellines and I had to buy a set of tires. I had bought Rachel a used set of MTRs last year and you have to be equal with both daughters. I decided the best thing to do would be to give Sarah my BFG AT KO 285's and buy myself a new set of tires. Lots of tread left on the BFG's they wear forever.
After slipping in Flat Nasty and seeing MOJ not have as much trouble with his Toyo MT's. I decided a Mud Terrain would be a good choice. Since I was buying a new set, I also decided to go with 315's (35's). That would provide me another lift of clearance without impacting the driveline angles.
I narrowed my choices down to the Cooper STT's and the Toyo Open Country MT's. Both are great tires and both are suppose to be quiet on the road. I debated the choice in this
thread: and selected the Toyo Open Country MT's. Due to them being a little taller, thicker sidewall and having seen some first hand at Flat Nasty.
I also installed L Shocks and bump stops for the larger tires. I debated on the need to increase the lift and went to talk to Christo. He basically said if my plans are to wheel in the same kind of stuff I am now, then no need for more lift. He said I do need to add bump stops and he suggested I wheel it and if where they hit the bump stops bothers me, then add lift, but otherwise leave it alone.
However, when I added the weight of the drawers the truck sits level and the back end is a little down when loaded up and towing, so I swapped out the 863 for 863J's in the rear and now I have a little bit of rake in the back.
If I want to step up to more aggressive stuff, then I might want to add lift, but I am very happy with the way it sits and don't think I would want any more lift.
My plans are to keep wheeling in the same stuff for now. I like to go wheeling with my daughters. That's more fun to me then wheeling more challenging stuff.
Both my daughters now have setup rigs
ROD ( Sarah):
daughterofromer (Rachel):